Wanstead A entertained defending KO Champions, Writtle, in the Final of this year’s competition. Skipper Paul Barclay had to cope with the late withdrawal of his top Board, IM Artur Sygulski. Larry Marden was on hand to step in as the late reserve, but all the other players had to move up a board.

With this handicap, it is easy to look on the outcome as inevitable, yet the team that took the field was still competitive.

Writtle, one has to accept, have the ‘winning habit’ and though having lost the toss, took the lead in the first round by 3½-1½, having won their two Whites and held Wanstead to draws with the black pieces.

In the second half, Wanstead staged a fightback and came close to matching Writtle’s first half results. David Spearman and Terry Whitton secured wins with Wanstead’s two Whites. Had Larry been able to repeat his first half draw, the match would have been a tie, even after the operation of both tie-breaks, necessitating a replay. But it didn’t happen. Larry lost his game and Writtle were home with two games to spare. Those games were the two Wanstead wins, but a Round 2 score of 3-2 was insufficient and Writtle retained the Sims Cup with 5½-4½ overall.

So once more, it is congratulations to Writtle!

For the first time in an Essex competition, games were screened live on the ECA website. The top three boards in each round were played on the sensory equipment. While there was a hiccup with the set up in Round 1, which delayed appearance of the games on screen, all the games have been captured and are available for PGN download. The Round 2 games were broadcast without problem; they can still be played through on screen as well as being downloaded in PGN. Of these games, the one to look out for is David Spearman’s Round 2 win against Russell White. Links below; you will find the links for the PGN downloads below the game board.

Tonight is “Bonanza Night” when our three teams in the Baum Trophy all play each other in three rounds of G30 Rapid Chess. The novelty this year is that three games in each round will be screened live on the Internet.

Watch them here:Bonanza Live Games
Approximate round start times of 7:30, 8:35 and 9:40 pm. The games will automatically refresh, but you will need to refresh your browser between rounds to get updated headers.

The games which will be shown live are:

Round 1

1 Staniland v Spearman
2 Bancroft v Collyer
3 Savaranan v Marden

Round 2

1 Spearman v Parols
2 Bancroft v Hodgson
3 Marden v Barclay

Round 3

1 Parols v Staniland
2 Hodgson v Collyer
3 Barclay v Savaranan

Approximate round start times of 7:30, 8:35 and 9:40 pm. You will need to refresh your browser between rounds to get update headers.

Wanstead 1 v Enfield 2 best of 10 in the last match of the 2016 Baum Trophy

The Club is back in action at Wanstead House this Tuesday after its two week closure for refurbishment. Both matches take place in Roding. Silent spectators are welcome. Social chess and analysis will be next door in Manor. Read more of this post

Matches between Wanstead first and second teams, which this match was, for this North Circular Chess League rapidplay knockout Cup competition, are renowned for being fiercely fought events. This match, extended from 4 to 7 boards played in front of the Finchley Cup raised on a pedestal of our 70th birthday celebratory sets’ boxes, was no exception.

Chairman Ian, last to arrive, remarked on the tension in our club room as the assembled players awaited the arrival of the team captains to declare the teams, no-one being quite sure of which team they were playing for; friend or foe? As not unusual in extended board events there was an enforced team change when stalwart of this competition, Keith Jones, fell victim to a Mother’s Day family surprise. Read more of this post

Wanstead C reach Knockout Plate Final as Wanstead A & B KO’d in the Cup

Plate: Wanstead C 6 – 4 Upminster B, 11 August 2015

Cup: Basildon 6½ – 3½ Wanstead A, 30 July 2015

Writtle 6½ – 3½ Wanstead B, 13 August 2015

Wanstead C are the last Wanstead team standing in the Essex Knockout after a tense plate semi-final against Upminster B, involving a second leg come back true to tradition for this rapidplay competition. Our Cup teams were not so fortunate, with Wanstead A having been convincingly outplayed in both legs of their quarter-final visit to Basildon, managing just a single win, whilst Wanstead B, having fought back to level their semi-final match at Writtle 3½ all, were beaten by the clock as the last 3 games all went to the wire in an equally tense semi-final.

Finals night will take place at Wanstead House on 9 September, with Wanstead C’s Plate Final against Upminster A taking place alongside the Cup final between Barking A and Writtle.

“Startling” was how the Essex Knockout Controller reported Wanstead B’s performance in their first round Cup qualifier away to Ilford and was summed up by their match Captain, David Smith, as “almost unbelievable” with his match result submission and so it was. Just the one defeat in the first leg and a clean sweep in the second, against a side that had comfortably beaten Wanstead 2 twice in the league. Read more of this post